In this article, you’ll find free, downloadable templates for succession planning, including those for emergency succession, career succession, CEO succession, nonprofit succession, board succession, family business succession, and law practice succession.
This template provides an outline for creating an emergency succession plan to help ensure a smooth transition when an unexpected leadership change occurs. Use the template to develop your own strategic plan for how to handle the temporary or unexpected absence of an executive director or similar role. Identify the key responsibilities of the role that need to be maintained, plans for interim or other hiring options, and procedures for implementing the emergency plan.
Download Emergency Succession Plan Template
This comprehensive succession planning worksheet includes a spreadsheet for tracking multiple roles, retirement status, potential successors, required training, and other information. It also includes two sheets for detailed employee succession planning: One matches the competencies required for a position with those held by a potential successor, and the other focuses on internal and external training plans to help fill any competency gaps. This is an Excel template that you can easily modify to include additional data.
Download Career Succession Plan Template
Create an executive succession planning template to prepare for a planned or unplanned CEO departure. Use this outline to develop a thorough plan, whether for a temporary or permanent leadership change. The template includes sections for detailed procedures and communication planning. It also includes a section to closely examine the role of the CEO and the attendant responsibilities that need to be addressed.
Download CEO Succession Plan Template
As with corporate succession planning, nonprofits need clear plans to help ensure continuity of leadership and management needs. Create a nonprofit succession plan to cover short-term, long-term, emergency, or multiple types of leadership change. Define procedures to be followed by staff and board members, clarify responsibilities for the board of directors, plan for communication with stakeholders, and provide a timeline for implementation. This template also allows you to compile key financial, legal, insurance, and other information for easy access.
Download Nonprofit Succession Plan Template
Track the length of service for each board member and identify successors. This is a simple succession plan template that you can use to identify committee members and the roles they serve, list term years with start and end dates, and create plans for re-election or succession. Edit the spreadsheet to include any additional board member information that you want to keep track of.
Download Board Succession Plan Template
Family businesses can use this template to create succession plans for retiring owners, for the sale of a business, or for unexpected leadership changes. Determine whether family members will be successors and what skills they need to develop in order to be prepared. Define the organizational structure, personnel changes that will take place in the event of a succession, legal and financial considerations, and risk management plans for potential issues.
Download Family Business Succession Plan Template
Whether you’re a sole proprietor or partner in a law firm, this succession planning template provides a basic outline for creating concrete goals related to retiring or transferring ownership, identifying capable successors, making a timeline for implementing the succession plan, and more. Create a sense of security for your law practice by setting a clear plan and reviewing it regularly.
This worksheet is designed to help you identify high-potential employees in order to create a talent pool for future positions. These are employees who, with the right career development, could be successors to important leadership positions. Use the worksheet to find key competencies and create an action plan for employees to gain skills and reach goals. Keep track of training and other activities, along with associated results.
Download Talent Pool Development Template
Once you have selected a template that works well with your business or organizational needs, you can customize it to create a personalized succession plan. Here are some of the elements commonly included in a succession plan:
Other common details include communication planning, retention risk information for the incumbent or candidates, procedural guidelines for an emergency absence or a temporary leave, financial and legal information, and more. In some cases, a simple spreadsheet is adequate for identifying talented candidates, planning action steps, and tracking progress. A more comprehensive plan includes supporting documents and clear guidelines for ensuring that leadership roles and management functions continue without interruption.
Succession planning can support businesses and employees by increasing staff retention, improving performance, and boosting employee confidence. It assists in identifying the critical positions within an organization and tracking potential vacancies so that you can prepare for future personnel needs. It is also a way of aligning future business objectives with employee development by helping high-potential employees gain the knowledge, experience, and skills they need to take on leadership roles. Employees get the benefit of advancing toward promotion, and businesses can help ensure that they fill current and future positions with the right candidates.
Businesses can save money by investing in internal employees, improving staff retention, and preparing for unexpected leadership losses. Succession planning also helps create smoother transitions, whether they’re related to organizational expansion, the sale of a business, retirement, or an emergency situation. Moreover, it can help fill new positions by providing a talent pool that you can draw from. You need to review and update a succession plan regularly so that planning and employee management become ongoing processes.
Succession planning has at least three stages: identifying future business challenges and key roles, evaluating and selecting employees based on critical competencies, and preparing those employees to fill future positions. Here’s a closer look at some of the steps involved:
Succession planning may sound like an overwhelming endeavor, but given the potential benefits, it’s worth the investment now to avoid undue challenges later. And, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), succession planning might be easier than you think once you break down the process into steps.
Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change.
The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.
When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.
